I due Foscari

A despairing father is torn between love for his family and duty to a corrupt city in Verdi's searing early tragedy.

Most recent performance

There are currently no scheduled performances of I due Foscari.
It was last on stage 14 October—2 November 2014 as part of the Autumn 2014/15 season.

The Story

Jacopo Foscari, son of the Doge of Venice, is convicted of murder and treason. His wife Lucrezia is sure of his innocence. But the Doge, trapped by the machinations of a corrupt city, is forced to make a terrible decision.

Background

I due Foscari, Verdi's sixth opera, is one of his darkest and saddest. At its heart is a father's realization that there is nothing he can do to protect his family against the world's cruelties. The 31-year-old composer may well have drawn on his own devastating experience of losing his wife and two infant children a few years earlier. But despite the opera's sombre soul, the music for I due Foscari contains exhilarating forerunners of Verdi's later style – particularly in the fiercely virtuosic writing for the heroine Lucrezia and her magnificent duets with the Doge in Act I and with her doomed husband in Act II.

American director Thaddeus Strassberger, making his Royal Opera debut, depicts a Venice that is rotten to its core. Mattie Ullrich's opulent costume designs reference the opera’s 15th-century setting while suggesting the corruption lurking beneath. The spare sets of award-winning British designer Kevin Knight illustrate the Foscaris' isolation and the decay of the city, before flaring out into grand guignol for the opera's brilliant Act III carnival.

On Wikipedia

I due Foscari (The Two Foscari) is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on a historical play, The Two Foscari by Lord Byron.After his success with Ernani, Verdi received a commission from Rome's Teatro Argentina and he went to work with Piave in considering two subjects, one of which eventually became this opera. I due Foscari was given its premiere performance in Rome on 3 November 1844 and was generally quite successful, although not on the scale of Ernani, which remained Verdi's most popular opera until Il trovatore in 1853.Today, Foscari is revived occasionally and its fortunes have been helped by the interest taken by tenor Plácido Domingo in singing baritone roles. He has already performed the role of the Doge in Los Angeles in 2012, in Valencia in early 2013, and he will do so again in Vienna in 2014.

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Running time

The performance lasts about 2 hours 35 minutes, including one interval

Language

Sung in Italian with English surtitles

Please note

There will be cameras filming in the auditorium on 20 and 27 October. Seats with a partially restricted view, due to cameras, are available at a discount of 25% by ringing the Box Office on +44(0)20 7304 4000.